Reform Education: Rethink No-Child-Left-Behind

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Sharing the Prize

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uploaded by Margaret Dodd

My sister, Barbara Shapiro wrote the following, and pasted it in her Facebook profile. I believe it is of great importance that we educate each child to his or her potential. Praise for the sake of praise does not work. Children are not learning to take pride in their work or their effort.

Following is Barbara's article:

When I hear the phrase "no child left behind", I envision a group of racing children at field day games all held to one pace by a tug-of-war rope stretched across in front of their straining chests. This is actually a heart-warming image, as long as there isn't something they all desperately need waiting at the finish line. Why not let the fastest among them run ahead and bring the prize back for all to share?

As long as we insist on education policies and teaching methods geared to the lowest common denominator, we will never provide our brightest students with the opportunities to fulfill their potential. No challenges to the brightest of the math students, physics students, chemistry students? Goodbye topnotch researchers. No challenges to our brightest Biology students? Goodbye topnotch doctors. No stretching the imaginations of our most talented history and English students? Goodbye topnotch politicians and statesmen. The pattern is clear. We are demanding less of our students, they are providing less for our futures. Requiring from our best and brightest a level of academic prowess that will bring their talents to fruition is elemental to our success as a nation. Their individual successes mean our national success.

I am in a unique position to meet with many students one-on-one, as a private tutor. I delight in clarifying ideas that they struggle with, and watching them experience the Eureka that brings real self-esteem. Not the kind of self esteem imposed on them by false praise, but the kind earned by the determined effort of the struggle itself. And I cannot fathom why their teachers demand so little of them. Math assignments are so short that the students cannot be expected to hold onto the concepts even overnight. English assignments are centered around current "literature" that employs jargon, misspellings, and street slang as examples of our native language. This language may be appropriate for conversation among students, but will hardly provide a background from which they might adequately learn to communicate on a formal level. I am convinced that those who learn to impress verbally are those who were given the opportunity to read their language in its pure form. Give our students back the classics.

When we begin to demand of our students the best they can give, each on his or her own level, we will see them rise to the challenge. We will regain our global competitiveness. We will climb toward economic success. And they and their children will inherit a new-found sense of national pride.

Getting back to basics, but with an emphasis on personal best, is key. We can continue to teach all students as if they all learned in the same way, at the same level. Or we can require that those who are capable of more, do more. The students will thrive on the challenge. The nation will thrive on the results.